Why PDF Formatting Changes in Word
PDFs and Word documents are fundamentally different formats. A PDF is like a photograph of a page — every element is locked in place at exact coordinates. Word is a word processor — text flows and reflows based on the window size and page margins.
The best PDF to Word converters (including PDF.it) do an excellent job of reproducing most formatting — but 100% identical reproduction is technically impossible for complex designs.
What Formats Well vs. What Needs Fixes
Converts Well (Little or No Fixing Needed)
- ✓ Body text, paragraphs, line spacing
- ✓ Headings (H1, H2, H3)
- ✓ Bold, italic, underline emphasis
- ✓ Numbered and bulleted lists
- ✓ Simple tables with clear borders
- ✓ Embedded images (inline)
- ✓ Page margins and basic layout
May Need Manual Fixes
- • Multi-column magazine-style layouts
- • Tables with merged cells or no visible borders
- • Decorative or custom fonts (substituted)
- • Floating images and text boxes
- • Headers and footers
- • Complex forms with checkboxes
How to Fix Common Formatting Issues
Fonts look wrong
If the PDF used a font not installed on your computer, Word substitutes the nearest match. Select the affected text and manually apply the correct font from Word's font dropdown. For system fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, and Calibri, this usually isn't an issue.
Tables are broken or shifted
Click inside the table in Word and use Table Tools (Design and Layout tabs) to fix borders, merge/split cells, and adjust column widths. For complex tables, it may be faster to rebuild them from scratch in Word and paste the content.
Images are in the wrong place
Right-click the image → Wrap Text → change from "Through" or "Behind Text" to "Inline with Text" for most consistent results. Then drag to reposition.
Text is in the wrong columns
Multi-column layouts from PDFs often convert as text boxes. Select all content, delete the text boxes, paste as plain text, then reapply the column layout using Word's Layout → Columns menu.